A jury has begun deliberating in the trial of a Kerry man accused of reckless endangerment by driving over a woman’s head twice.
26-year-old Caimin Sheedy of Rusheen, Firies, is on trial at Tralee Circuit Court on one count of reckless endangerment, arising from an incident almost four years ago.
The jury of seven women and five men were sent out shortly after 11am today to begin deliberating.
It’s the prosecution’s case that Mr Sheedy consciously disregarded an obvious risk, in driving over a young woman’s head twice with a van, which constitutes reckless endangerment.
The defence argues it was an accident, and Mr Sheedy was not reckless in his mindset.
The incident happened at Mr Sheedy’s mother’s house in Firies, after he had driven a group of six young people back there from a night out in Killarney in the early hours of 19th July 2022.
The group consisted of Mr Sheedy, two of his male friends, and three young women who they did not know prior to the night, and were visiting Killarney for a night out from Cork.
One of the women, Molly Hegarty, told the trial when she got out of the back of Mr Sheedy’s van in Firies, it knocked her down and the back wheel then rolled over her head.
She told the court the van stopped, then drove forward, with the same back wheel again rolling over her head.
Mr Sheedy had told gardaí he dropped his friends to Killarney but didn’t join them, and that they later arrived at his house with the women without warning.
He also told gardaí he did not move the van a second time, and stopped entirely after he initially reversed.
The prosecution says these parts of Mr Sheedy’s account are not true, as other witnesses place Mr Sheedy in Killarney and as the person who drove the group to Firies.
Ms Hegarty suffered severe injuries as a result of the incident including a broken back and spine and a laceration to the scalp.
She had to re-learn how to walk and still suffers with memory issues, while she has not regained feeling in some parts of her body.
The prosecution says Mr Sheedy should have seen a warning light on the van that signals a door is open and should not have reversed; the defence says not seeing this light does not constitute recklessness.
Mr Sheedy is represented by Senior Counsel Séamus Roche, with Katie O’Connell BL instructed by solicitor Eimear Griffin.
The jury is currently in its deliberations.
